Social media applications implement computer-mediated technologies allowing for the creating and sharing of content that communicates information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. Social media platforms use web-based technologies, desktop computers, and mobile technologies (e.g., smartphones and tablet computers) to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals, communities, and organizations can share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content or pre-made content posted online.
Mobile electronic devices on which end-user social media applications can be executed typically provide geolocation services that determine the geographic location of the mobile electronic device, by extension indicating the geographic location of the associated user. Social media content posted by users is often geo-tagged based on the geolocation of a mobile electronic device (such as a mobile phone) by use of which the social media content is captured and/or posted to the social media platform. In other embodiments, social media content may explicitly be geo-tagged by a user using a computer device that does not have activated geolocation services and/or that is not a mobile device (such as a desktop PC).
The headings provided herein are merely for convenience and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the terms used.